Projects / Port-Menier Town Hall and Visitor Centre
An architecture shaped by its surroundings
On Anticosti Island, every design choice becomes an opportunity to connect with the land and reveal the character of the place. The architecture and design draw sensitively from the landscapes, forms and materials that shape the island’s identity. A contemporary approach guided by careful attention to detail and the environment.
A meeting place for the island and its community
In Port-Menier, the new town hall and visitor centre brings municipal, community, and tourism functions together under one roof. An information desk, multipurpose room, and administrative offices occupy the ground floor, while the upper level houses spaces dedicated to municipal administration, including the council chamber.
Designed in the context of Anticosti’s inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2023, the building responds to the island’s evolving needs for visitor services and municipal administration. It creates a shared place for those who call Anticosti home and those who come to discover it.
A sensitive response to the landscape
The building’s form emerges from a careful reading of the site. Set into the sloping terrain, a long volume topped by a gable roof draws inspiration from the formal simplicity of the island’s historic buildings. Its orientation strengthens visual connections to the bay and the centre of Port-Menier
At its heart, a secondary volume marks the entrance and organizes the various functions on either side. Public and municipal spaces occupy one side, while the visitor centre and administrative offices are located on the other. Projecting toward the bay, this central volume becomes both a point of convergence and a landmark within the landscape.
Dormers, wood trim, and horizontal lines extend this dialogue with the island’s architectural heritage through a contemporary expression that is both restrained and confident.
Wood, from structure to furniture
Here, wood does more than clad the architecture: it is integral to the building’s structural logic and creates a sense of continuity throughout. Light-frame wood construction makes up most of the structure, a choice well suited to the realities of building on the island, particularly because of its light weight and rapid assembly.
In spaces requiring longer spans, such as the multipurpose room, glulam takes over. Left exposed, the structure becomes an integral part of the architectural experience. In the entrance hall, exposed roof trusses unfold beneath the generous roof slopes, establishing the presence of wood from the moment of arrival.
The material then shifts to a more human scale. Reception desks, built-in furniture, doors, frames, and ceiling elements extend the language of the structure into everyday interactions. Outside, cedar shingles—selected in part for their resistance to salt spray—are paired with slate, their materiality and layering evoking Anticosti’s landscapes and geological strata.
Architecture that reveals its surroundings
Generously open to the bay and Port-Menier, the building allows the landscape to accompany the activities within. Bathed in natural light, an artwork by Marc-Antoine Côté enters into dialogue with the exposed timber structure and views extending outward. It creates a sensitive connection between art, architecture, and landscape, becoming an integral part of the experience of the place.
The interior design extends this relationship with the territory through a palette of materials, textures, and colours inspired by Anticosti’s natural environment. Concrete and ceramic finishes evoke the mineral character of the island’s rock formations, carpet patterns recall lichen, and shades of green echo its vegetation. In this way, the surrounding landscape finds a subtle continuation within the building.
Light, views, and materials come together to create welcoming spaces where municipal administration, community life, and the discovery of the island coexist naturally.
Through an architecture that is restrained and firmly rooted in its context, the project seeks not to impose itself, but to find its place: a civic building designed to bring people together while sensitively revealing something of Anticosti’s distinctive character.